E-Mail Client with Programmable Address Attributes

ABSTRACT

A method enables a single agent to respond to incoming emails as representing a plurality of different entities, using the following steps: (a) receiving an incoming email by an email application executing on a computerized appliance from a machine-readable medium; (b) preparing by an agent having access to the email application an outgoing email in response to the incoming email; (c) accessing a data table associating “send to” addresses of incoming emails with “from” addresses for outgoing emails; and (d) automatically entering for the outgoing email, by the email application, the “from” address associated with the “send to” address in the incoming email.

CROSS-RELATED DOCUMENTS

The present invention is a continuation of co-pending U.S. applicationSer. No. 10/898,063, filed on Jul, 23, 2004, which is a continuation ofU.S. application Ser. No. 09/102,741, filed Jun. 22, 1998 and issued asU.S. Pat. No. 6,785,710 on Aug. 31, 2004. The disclosures of priorapplications are incorporated herein at least by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is in the field of e-mail communication andpertains more particularly to methods and apparatus for providing anenhanced e-mail client having programmable multi-address attributes.

2. Discussion of the State of the Art

Electronic mail (e-mail) has become one of the most commonly usedcommunication tools in business and in the home. E-mail compriseselectronic documents having a particular protocol for addressing, suchas “send to”. “from”, and “reply to” addresses, and requires compatiblesoftware applications on the part of both sender and recipient forhandling the protocol. Such an application in the art is termed ane-mail client, and this term will be used frequently in the presentapplication, meaning the control routines used for processing e-mails,including reading, replying, and the like.

Typically, an e-mail message is temporarily stored in an e-mail serverconnected to a data-network, and users may retrieve the stored messagesfrom such a server at their convenience. Most e-mail clients allow awide variety of options to a user regarding such e-mail attributes aslanguage type, encryption methods, list mailing capability, documentattaching capability, profile options, and so on. Also, user and clientinformation may be easily stored in an address book (database) forsimple retrieval and implementation.

Although many companies recognize the benefit of using e-mail, some ofthem have only recently installed e-mail systems. One reason for this isbecause e-mail applications of current art are largely proprietary andsome do not communicate using the same protocol as another application.Therefore, additional steps may be required by a sender to configure hisor her e-mail so that a particular receiver using a variant applicationmay be able to read it. Often, these prerequisites are forgotten when auser sends an e-mail to a recipient necessitating a resend of the samemessage. More recently, however, e-mail protocol has become much morestandardized, and e-mails may typically be processed over differentnetworks and through different servers and services.

Recently, too, many companies and homes have been connected to theInternet, which is a world-wide public data network connecting tens ofmillions of computers. One of the reasons for the Internet's popularityis that the cost of access is very low. Another reason is that theInternet offers many resources in addition to e-mails. Each user of theInternet is typically assigned an e-mail address that is recognizablearound the world. A computer connected to the Internet, having an e-mailclient installed, can send e-mails to any one of these e-mail addresses,however, the proprietary nature of the client software may still requireadditional steps to be taken before one can send a message to arecipient using a variant application such as initiating variablecoding, and so on.

As a result of the popularity and convenience of e-mails, particularlyover the Internet, some companies now encourage their customers to sendcomments and request information and services using e-mails. Typically,these companies set up one or more specific e-mail addresses for thesepurposes, such as sales@xyz.dom, support@xyz.dom etc., and e-mailservers handling incoming mails may be a part of telephony call centerswherein agent stations are enabled with computer stations connected tothe e-mail server.

In such e-mail systems there is still a pronounced problem and unmetneed that may occur under certain conditions. For example, in somecall-center environments wherein e-mail is supported, a number of agentsmay represent a number of different companies, being responsible for allcommunication including e-mail with the customers of those companies. Insuch a call center, it is desirable that agents be able to respond tocustomers with an e-mail reply having a “from” and a “reply to” addresswhich refers to the company the customer has addressed originally.

The present problem is, that with current art e-mail clients, the returnaddress is a default of the client for a profile, in some cases, and nota variable that an agent can manipulate, or that may changeautomatically depending on some attribute of a received message, withoutrestarting the client, which can be very time consuming. When replyingto a customer, default settings automatically insert the default “from”and “reply to” e-mail address into the reply. While most current arte-mail clients support the use of multiple profiles, a user must log-into each profiles and may use only one at a time. Creating many profilescan be time consuming, and changing profiles during work of answeringe-mails is clumsy and inefficient.

What is clearly needed is an e-mail client application that mayautomatically choose and insert addresses in the appropriate field boxof an e-mail reply to an original message, or at least provideselectable options for such addresses to an agent or other user. Anapplication such as this would save time and enable one agent to handlee-mail communications to customers of many different companies, and, inthe case of automatic insertion in response to characteristics of anoriginal message, avoid any danger of inserting a wrong or misleadingaddress.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention a method enabling asingle agent to respond to incoming emails as representing a pluralityof different entities is provided, comprising the steps of (a) receivingan incoming email by an email application executing on a computerizedappliance from a machine-readable medium; (b) preparing by an agenthaving access to the email application an outgoing email in response tothe incoming email; (c) accessing a data table associating “send-to”addresses of incoming emails with “from” addresses for outgoing emails;and (d) automatically entering for the outgoing email, by the emailapplication, the “from” address associated with the “send-to” address inthe incoming email.

In one embodiment the method includes a step for parsing the body of theincoming email, a step for accessing a table associating specific keywords or phrases found in the parsing to “send-to” and “reply-to”addresses, and a step for entering the “send-to” or “reply-to” addressesin the outgoing email.

21. (New) The method of claim 19 including a step wherein the emailclient enters pre-programmed body text in the outgoing email, dependingon the “send-to” address in the incoming email.22. (New) The method of claim 20 including a step wherein the emailclient enters pre-programmed body text in the outgoing email, dependingon the result of the parsing step.23. (New) The method of claim 19 further comprising a step forforwarding the received email to a destination other than the “send-to”address of the incoming email, depending on the depending on the“send-to” address in the incoming email.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an e-mail processing center using amulti-addressable e-mail client according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating steps in a method according to anembodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an e-mail processing center 9 using amulti-addressable e-mail client according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. E-mail processing center 9 is provided for thepurpose of processing, configuring, and routing e-mails arriving from adata network 11 according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,765,033. Center 9 may bepart of a computer-enhanced call-center as shown in this embodiment, ormay be part of a data network telephony (DNT) center. Data network 11may be the Internet or another wide area network (WAN) such as a privatecorporate network.

For the purposes of describing the present invention in its severalaspects, assume that e-mail processing center 9 accepts and processese-mails that are addressed to a plurality of different companies thatare, in this case, represented by agents working in a singlecomputer-enhanced call center, which enhancement is referred to in theart as computer-telephony integration (CTI). In such a center any singleagent may represent several companies. Customers of various companiesmay send e-mails addressed to their represented companies via computerssuch as computers 13, 15, and 17 illustrated as connected through datanetwork 11. Because the companies in question have arranged andcontracted to have their inquiries answered via agent personnel at thecall center, e-mails addressed to any one of those companies aredirected to an e-mail server at the call center by any one of severalpossible routes or methods not particularly pertinent to the presentinvention, except that such e-mails arrive at the call center and aredistributed to agents at the call center with the “send to” addressintact, representing the company to which the customer has directed thee-mail.

An e-mail server to CTI server adapter 25, hereinafter termed CTIadapter 25, is provided in this embodiment for the purpose of creatingnotification events and changing certain e-mail attributes for routingpurposes so that normal CTI routing of e-mails via existing routingsoftware may be performed as described in the prior related patent U.S.Pat. No. 5,765,033. All e-mails arriving at e-mail server 23 will berouted to available agents based on skill and as otherwise defined withreference to the prior case.

A local area network (LAN) 27 provides connectivity between a host ofmachines adapted to enable the e-mail routing system. A router 29 isprovided for the routing of e-mails to agents operating LAN-connectedcomputers such as computers 21 and 19. A stat-server 31 is provided andmaintains statistical information as well as near real-time informationregarding agent status, agent responsibilities, language and skillattributes as applied to individual agents, and so on.

A database 35 is provided and contains in this embodiment informationregarding customers, products, represented company data, and so on. ACTI server 37 is provided for the purpose of enabling existing telephonyapplications to communicate with the stat-server 31, router 29, anddatabase 35, and to provide other enhanced services to the call center.A skilled artisan will recognize that there will typically be atelephony switching apparatus with incoming trunks and telephones atagent stations connected to the switching apparatus as well as thecomputer for handling e-mails, although none of these entities are shownin FIG. 1. Also, as previously described, CTI server 37 may aid inrouting e-mails after certain attributes are changed at CTI-serveradapter 25.

Once an agent has received notification of a routed e-mail, he mayretrieve the actual e-mail from e-mail server 23, or e-mails may berouted automatically to agents based on any of a number of criteria, asdescribed in the prior referenced patent. For the purpose of the presentinvention the method by which the agents receive e-mails is notparticularly relevant.

Agents logged on to the system via connected computers 19 and 21 havee-mail clients 39 and 41 according to an embodiment of the presentinvention installed and operable. E-mail clients 39 and 41 may be thesame software application, different versions of the same application,or different applications that are enhanced with the same functionalityas provided according to an embodiment of the present invention. Theinnovative function of the present invention is functionality of e-mailclients 39 and 41 to choose and insert a correct “from” or “reply to”addresses in the agent's e-mail reply to the original e-mail sent in tothe center by the customer, or at least to allow the agent to selectalternative addresses.

In a multi-tenant center such as center 9 wherein customers send e-mailsto multiple companies that may represented by single agents it istypically not necessary to be able to select “send to” addresses whenthe agent sends a reply. The e-mail client simply sends the reply to theauthor, as is usual. However, in the event that there are two or morecompanies represented by a single agent, an original message from acustomer will arrive at e-mail server 23 with the message addressed to aparticular company.

The most basic embodiment of the present invention is for the situationof a multi-tenant call center wherein agents may represent and answere-mails for multiple companies. In this situation it is necessary thatan agent be capable of at least manually entering, in a reply to areceived e-mail, a “from” and “reply-to” address for the company towhich an e-mail he or she answers was originally sent. Therefore, in anembodiment of the invention clients 39 and 41 are enabled to offer anagent, in the process of replying to an e-mail, alternative addressesfor insertion in a reply, and alternative addresses for entering intonew e-mails he or she may send out for one of the companies represented.The alternatives are stored in a lookup table, such as tables 33,accessible to the agent through the client, and may be presented to theagent in any of a number of forms as known in the art, such as a menulist selectable by a cursor by “point-and-click techniques. Such a tablemay be at the agents computer or accessible over the LAN connection at,for example, the stat-server or in database 35.

In an alternative embodiment the e-mail client application mayautomatically make selections from a look-up table 33 according topreprogrammed rules, according to the “send-to” address (for example) inthe originally-received e-mail. For example, a parser (part of themodule) is utilized to retrieve the “send-to” address, or even otherattributes in the received e-mail, such as certain words or phrases inthe body of the message. The identifier could be a special code or anorder number. The client may use the order number to match that e-mailto the correct company via lookup table 33 which contains, at least, thecompany's names, e-mail addresses and product-order numbers. The clientsoftware may then automatically substitute the appropriate addressesautomatically without the agent's concerted attention.

It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that the method andapparatus of the present invention may be practiced in an e-mailprocessing center connected to a CTI call center, a DNT center, or byusers simply connected to a network such as the Internet withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Certainaspects of the client application may be shared such as a parser and adatabase containing company addresses and perhaps additionalinformation. Those same aspects may, in some embodiments, be containedwithin the client application on a user's computer. There are manypossibilities within the spirit and scope of the invention.

It will also be apparent to one with skill in the art that the uniquefunctions of the present invention may be performed more than onceduring the processing of an e-mail without departing from the spirit andscope of the present invention. For example, a general clientapplication could reside in e-mail server 23 wherein as instructed viarouting decisions, inserts the appropriate e-mail address to a connectedagent at his or her computer, such as computer 21 for example.

In an alternative embodiment the system of the invention can enable anagent to forward e-mails automatically to alternative call centers orother companies. Perhaps a received e-mail message is requesting aservice that is better provided by a second company to which the firstcompany has an agreement. In this case the “send-to” address on theoriginal message may be changed to a new address of the second companyand routed to an agent representing the second company. If it is agreedby the second company that it remain anonymous, perhaps being paid forthe service by the first company, then the reply message will use the“from” address of the first company to which the original message wassent, and so on.

This alternative embodiment enables several companies to perform partsof a service such as a complex manufacturing of a product without thecustomer knowing or being concerned about all of the different companiesinvolved, while at the same time, the customer may receive informationdirectly from agents representing the various companies. This saves timefor both the agent representing the first company and the customer whosent the e-mail to that company.

In still another embodiment, the present invention may be practicedwithout center 9. For example, companies A, B, and C may be required tocomplete an order for machined parts that was placed by a customer to acompany D represented by an agent working at home and advertising on theInternet. Company D receives the original e-mail including a purchaseorder; however none of the work is actually performed by company D.Through negotiated contract, companies A, B, and C actually complete theorder in stages for company D who pays them directly for each part ofmanufacture or service

In current art, if a customer sends a second e-mail to company Drequesting status while the parts are at the location of company A, thencompany D, without the aid of the present invention, would have toforward the reply to company A via e-mail, telephone, or some othermedia. Company D would then have to wait for a reply, then get back tothe customer.

With the aid of a multi-addressable e-mail client according to thepresent invention, the agent representing company D may in effectsubstitute company A's address in the “mail-to” field of the customerse-mail request, and send it to company A as an original message from thecustomer. Company A would answer the e-mail and replace its address inthe “from” field with company D's address and send the reply back to thecustomer as an original reply. Thus, the agent at company D does nothave to reply or become engaged in chasing down answers from variouscompanies. This allows an agent to spend more time on marketing and lesstime on servicing.

There is another situation wherein the multi-addressability of an e-mailclient as in embodiments of the present invention is very useful. Thisis the situation where a home agent may be enabled and connected to morethan one call center, each center hosted by a different company. Thisagent will need the functionality of an e-mail client according to oneor more embodiments of the present invention, in order to operate asthough he/she is an agent of each of the call centers serviced.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating steps taken in practicing anembodiment of the present invention. The example provided herein ismeant only to show one of many variant workflow possibilities pertainingto the multi-addressable client of the present invention. Otherpossibilities may be inherent in other embodiments. In step 43, an agentreceives an e-mail routed to him based on existing routing rules withine-mail center 9 of FIG. 1. Downloading may be automatic or initiated bythe agent.

The agent begins answering the e-mail in step 45. In step 47 the agent'se-mail client decides if the reply requires an address change. Thisprocess may be initiated when the agent chooses the “reply-to” option inhis client. In the event that the agent's client handles personal mailas well as company mail, the personal mail would use the client'sdefault settings with respect to the agent's e-mail address. Thedetermination may be made on the simple criteria of the “send-to”address of the received e-mail, or by some other data or attribute ofthe received e-mail.

Having determined in step 47 that the particular e-mail the agent isanswering requires intervention, the client immediately looks up thecorrect company address or addresses in step 49. This step takes placeautomatically in a preferred embodiment while the agent is formulatingand typing his response. Additional information may also be accessed inthis step such as information regarding the status of an order, changesor revisions to order status, or other information.

In step 51 the client inserts the correct company address or addressesinto the appropriate field or fields in the agent's reply. Also, otherinformation retrieved in step 49 that may be pertinent to a customer'sorder could be presented to an agent in a separate dialogue box and mayhelp the agent in formulating a response. In step 53, the agent sendsthe completed reply to the customer.

In an alternative embodiment steps 47 may be at the agent's discretion,and the client may present the agent with alternative addresses forinsertion, or allow the agent to simply enter in variable fields in thereply form, alternative addresses.

It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that the stepsdescribed immediately above may be different for use with alternateembodiments of the present invention. It will also be apparent to onewith skill in the art that the multi-addressable capability, asdescribed herein, could be provided as a complete e-mail softwareprogram or, incorporated into existing applications as an upgradewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

It will be appreciated by the skilled artisan that there are manyalternatives to the embodiments described within the spirit and scope ofthe invention. There are many ways, for example that alternative datamay be presented to an agent or other user. There are many alternativesin ways software routines may be written while accomplishing the uniquefunctionality of the present invention. There are similarly many otheralternatives within the scope of the invention. The spirit and scope ofthe present invention is limited only by the claims that follow.

1. A method enabling a single agent to respond to incoming emails asrepresenting a plurality of different entities, comprising the steps of:(a) receiving an incoming email by an email application executing on acomputerized appliance from a machine-readable medium; (b) preparing byan agent having access to the email application an outgoing email inresponse to the incoming email; (c) accessing a data table associating“send-to” addresses of incoming emails with “from” addresses foroutgoing emails; and (d) automatically entering for the outgoing email,by the email application, the “from” address associated with the“send-to” address in the incoming email.
 2. The method of claim 1including a step for parsing the body of the incoming email, a step foraccessing a table associating specific key words or phrases found in theparsing to “send-to” and “reply-to” addresses, and a step for enteringthe “send-to” or “reply-to” addresses in the outgoing email.
 3. Themethod of claim 1 including a step wherein the email client enterspre-programmed body text in the outgoing email, depending on the“send-to” address in the incoming email.
 4. The method of claim 2including a step wherein the email client enters pre-programmed bodytext in the outgoing email, depending on the result of the parsing step.5. The method of claim 1 further comprising a step for forwarding thereceived email to a destination other than the “send-to” address of theincoming email, depending on the depending on the “send-to” address inthe incoming email.